Innovate – for implementing new ways of engaging customers living in a digital lifestyle

Transform – for building organisational capabilities to become modern marketers.

Hannon won out over fellow Irish native Margaret Molloy, CMO of Siegal+Gale, and Mary Ellen Dugan, CMO of WP Engine, in the Connect category.

Amanda Brinkman, CMO of Deluxe, and Gail Tifford, founder of #SeeHer and recently named chief brand officer of Weight Watchers, were co-winners in the Inspire category.

The CMO of Stanford Children’s Health, Les Lifter, won the Be Bold category. Charissa Messner, the senior president for enterprise creative solutions at Bank of America, picked up the Innovate award while Mike Linton, CMO of Farmers Insurance Group, won in the Transform category.

From consumer electronics to the core of IoT

Hannon (left) on stage at SXSW picking up his award in the Connect category of the Valiente Awards. Image: Kieran Hannon

As CMO of Belkin, Hannon has helped to transform the company into a key internet of things (IoT) player.

Belkin was formed in 1982 and its first product was printer cables for the Apple II.

The company still makes the cables and connecting devices for home entertainment and data connectivity, but a key facet is automation.

Belkin’s WeMo switching products make it possible to control slow cookers, coffee makers and lightbulbs, for example.

Hannon’s role at Belkin International encompasses all three of its brands – Belkin, Linksys and WeMo – where he manages every aspect of the marketing organisation globally, including e-commerce.

He is a founding member of the Irish Technology Leadership Group, where he sits on the management team, and is also a technology advisory board member of Enterprise Ireland.

Prior to Belkin, Hannon led the integration of UBM’s acquisition of Canon Communications, and before that he was vice-president for marketing at RadioShack Corporation.

Earlier in his career, he was president of Grey Worldwide in San Francisco, one of the top-performing ad agencies in the Grey Global Group network.